IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Bad timing for sequester cuts to hit US firefighting budget; NM county bans fracking due to drought; CT passes law to require GMO labeling...sort of; NV ditches coal plants; Renewable energy breaks out across US; PLUS: National Mall's new monument...to climate change! ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): The ‘Social Cost Of Carbon’ Is Almost Double What The Government Previously Thought; Invention could wrap buildings in solar panels; World’s Biggest Coal Company Is Turning To Solar Energy To Lower Its Utility Bill; USDA helping farmers adapt to climate change; AFP targets Dems over non-existent carbon tax; LED lightbulbs saved $657m this year; Study: trash litters ocean floor ... PLUS: The Most Important Day of the 21st Century ... and much, MUCH more! ...

Taxpayers are paying for the construction of a new wall on the National Mall. Longer than a football field, the wall has not been built to honor the nation’s fallen heroes or great leaders from our past. It has been quietly constructed over the past 2½ years to protect a vast swath of downtown Washington from a devastating flood. No longer a theory, climate change is here. The wall is a small part of the tens of billions of dollars Americans will have to pay in the future just to take the edge off the devastating effects of climate alteration...a flood would inundate all of the national museums and the agencies...the National Archives... The damage to our national treasures would be literally beyond calculation.

In acting to protect their water supply, the 5,000 residents of poor, conservative Mora County make it the first in the U.S. to ban fracking --- hydraulic fracturing for oil....the controversial oil and gas extraction technique known as "fracking" that has compromised water quantity and quality in communities around the country.

The Illinois legislature has passed a fracking regulatory bill, expected to be signed into law by the governor, hailed by some environmental groups as the "toughest in the country." But other groups are highly critical, both of the bill and of the way some big environmental groups worked with legislators and industry to pass it into law.

Within 24 hours, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell approved three renewable energy projects on federal land in Arizona and Nevada, and announced Interior will hold the first auction for US offshore wind farm leases in July. Together, the two decisions could create nearly 4 gigawatts of new clean electricity generation.

Hickenlooper’s signature on the bill is the latest rejection of a national campaign by conservative organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, and the Heartland Institute to thwart clean energy momentum by rolling back state renewable energy standards that have been adopted in 29 states and the District of Columbia.

The U.S. government updated its estimate of how much carbon pollution harms the economy. They found that their previous estimated costs were too low — ranging from 50 to 100 percent depending on the year and the estimate.

Not only is Coal India pursuing commercial solar power plants, it’s also “mulling” the installation of rooftop solar panels at the Ranchi Central Mine Planning and Design Institute, where it does mining research. The panels would go on “staff colonies” and in mining areas, with the goal of reducing the company’s energy bills.

One day, sometime around the middle of this century, during the lifetime of people now alive, the population of the planet will be smaller than it was the day before. Global population growth is slowing, will level off, and one remarkable day, decline.

This day will mark the dividing line --- the definitive transition --- between a world dominated by the concept of exponential, inexorable growth to one that has the opportunity to come to grips with true long-term global sustainability.

Vilsack will introduce U.S. Department of Agriculture programs today to combat the effects of climate volatility. As a Corn Belt drought, the worst since the 1930s, is replaced by the wettest Iowa spring on record, farmers need resources and research to make better choices on planting and dealing with threats from the weather, he said in previewing a speech today at the National Press Club in Washington.

Australian scientists have found a way to print large but extremely lightweight and flexible solar panels like money. World-leading scientists at the CSIRO said the A3-sized panels, which are created by laying a liquid photovoltaic ink onto thin, flexible plastic could soon mean everyone has the ability to print their own solar panels at home. "It would definitely be feasible to do that," said CSIRO materials scientist Dr Scott Watkins."The general concept of being able to manufacture on demand, in a house or in a workplace, is really a key feature of what we're doing."

But what's even more impressive is the potential for improvement. There are still many low-hanging fruits to be picked, and as LEDs are becoming better and cheaper, this should start to happen rather quickly. The DOE estimates that if the nine markets included in the estimate above were to switch to LEDs overnight, "annual source energy savings could approach 3,873 tBtu, or about 3.9 quadrillion Btu (quads)". This would be the equivalent of about $37 billion in annual energy costs!

Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists have designed a new type of nanostructured-carbon-based catalyst that could pave the way for reliable, economical next-generation batteries and alkaline fuel cells, providing for practical use of wind- and solar-powered electricity, as well as enhanced hybrid electric vehicles.